Alonso is a lot of money in defence but if he scores like last season he might end up scoring more than a lot of mids around the 7.0m mark. Having 2 promoted mids and Loftus-Cheek on the bench who won’t play every game is risky but it’s still early on and things can change.

I thought it would have been a bit risky to start him, I’ve got him locked in as my 5th mid at the moment though. Wasn’t expecting him to start every week however. Turns out I’ve actually gone something similar to this (Mooy & Loftus-Cheek 4th & 5th mids) so it goes to show how things change :p

Thanks mate, I’m finding the midfielders to be the hardest this year. So many options, but it was hard to overlook the quality in attack. Last 2 seasons I would go with the cheap 3rd striker, and it’s so annoying, they are just not consistent and have to constantly make changes and -4 hits to make it work some how. So this year, I’m splashing out on attack and waiting on midfield. If some midfielder becomes a must, will switch one of the strikers for them 🙂

Thanks. Yes, Alder has always delivered for me. I’m finding it a bit a strange that Lindelof is getting so much love, given he’s new to the team and Man U were not exactly a defence powerhouse last season… though their fixtures do look good, might have to get him on the watchlist

Have not yet looked at early fixtures for defenders/GKs but feel like Trippier will be good value if he can nail down the RB spot and Ake if he can nail down CB spot and bang a couple of headers in early along with some clean sheets. Don’t really need a Huddersfield def but think they will be solid at the back so will likely pick one of them to rotate with any other 4.5 def.

De Bruyne, Alli, Pogba, Kane and Lacazette are the current guns of the team, while Chicharito and Herrera are the two big PODs for now

Herrera will be stuck at DM, so his returns might be limited. Chicharito might explode. You’re right, defence needs work, I personally think 2 GK options there is better value and better rotation if you go with 2 x 4.5

Yeah I mainly agree. I also just realised that my thoughts about Huddersfield’s def is actually very unfounded, will probably ditch the Huddersfield def. I’m uncertain about Herrera but my thinking was that him and Pogba will be rather freed up by the signing of Matic. Last season Herrera played rather within his full attacking abilities, could still amount to nothing, but so far I don’t mind the option

Very true Matt, the budget mids article has some good info. Without changing the price structure of the team, I now have Ward-Prowse as my 4th mid and looking at either Chalobah or Carroll as 5th mid. Of course I may change other players to afford a stronger 4th mid

Thoughts on the team? I think it’s pretty balanced given the heavy outlay for Alonso and Kolasinac. Bench is awful but won’t be rotating the defence anyway. Ake over Yoshida due to attacking threat and southampton, despite their easy fixtures, haven’t been great defensively in the pre season…

Defenders may be too expensive. If you pick Chicharito you start him. You can have expensive defenders just not 4 or 5. Keep 3 of your 4 starting defenders while downgrading one to have on the bench and start Chicharito on the field other than that do whatever you want. Selections look pretty solid, apparently Trippier may miss first game or two which is a shame because I have him too

No worries mate. Trippier’s ankle injury has thrown my plans into disarray, even though it may only be one or two weeks. Waiting on more news. As far as the team structure goes I like it, don’t get too caught up on ‘team coverage’. Pick the players you think will perform.

Really unsure about Willian/Abraham at the moment. Don’t rate WBA so avoiding J. Rod and think Tammy is the next best cheap forward. Could downgrade Willian to Ritchie or even JWP and upgrade Alexander-Arnold but think he will start first few GW’s and is worth a punt.